time is relative
by Woodswolf
Summary: There's a reason Julien wiped Zane's memory. Nobody's meant to live this long. Relativity's a bitch. - Minor Pixane, some references to Nindroid!Jay


_time is relative_

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he wakes up

He's not sure how he got here

He's not sure he wants to know

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he finds a village

An old man lives there

He stays for a while

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when a sensei tells him who he is

He's the Ninja of Ice

He can't remember anything else

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets his first friend

 _Jay Walker,_ the boy says

He likes him

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets another friend

Cole is smart and kind

He's a good friend

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when the quartet finally complete

Kai wants his family back

He doesn't have any

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets his friend's sister

Nya knows where she's going in life

He respects her for that

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when the Serpentine are unleashed

They save the day

It doesn't last very long

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he sees a falcon

Something resonates inside him

He follows it to the horizon

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he finds a treehouse in the woods

He learns something disturbing

He's sixty-ish when he walks out

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when another ninja joins the team

Lloyd shouldn't have to see his father die

He would know

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he finds his father

He doesn't know how to react

It wasn't just a bad dream

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when they win

It's bittersweet

Nothing will ever be the same again

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when his father dies

He watches carefully

The nightmare is just beginning

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he meets another android

Pixal doesn't know what it's like to see someone die

He hopes she never learns

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Pixal dies

She gets to experience it first-hand

He's jealous

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when chaos erupts

Jay has a fake eye now

He doesn't know what to say

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he dies

The last thing he sees is a memory

A yellow butterfly

* * *

Zane's picture looks sixteen-ish at the funeral

A yellow butterfly comes for the flowers

It listens to the gentle lies

* * *

Zane looks different when he comes back

But everything's gone before too long

He's spirited away to the other side of the world

* * *

Zane looks different when he wakes up from a bad dream

Someone's there

He can't remember her name

* * *

Zane looks different when he finds Pixal's remains

He takes her with him

They're alone in this together

* * *

Zane looks different when sees his friends again

He doesn't know what they'll think

They say he still looks sixteen-ish

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he tames his dragon

It can't hurt him now

(He's still only sixteen-ish)

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when they save the world again

It feels strange to be around for the celebration

It's been a while

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Lloyd is taken away

They have to get him back

(He can't lose them yet)

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he stares into the reflections

He wonders what his future self is doing

He wonders where he'll end up after that

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when a new villain rises

They have the power to change anything

He's so tempted to ask for a wish

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when the reflections come true

He goes back to the cave

He sees himself alone

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Jay dies in an accident

 _You're in this for the long haul,_ the note says, _so here's a piece of me to keep_

Attached is the fake eye

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Cyrus sends a space station into orbit

It's named after Jay

He doesn't attend the launch

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Nya begins an expedition

 _I'm going to explore the stars,_ she says

He almost wants to go with her for a different reason

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Cole dies

It was cancer

He feels betrayed

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he reads the newspaper

On the front page: Nya found a far-away Earth-like planet

In the obituaries: Kai died of old age

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Pixal wants a new body

Cyrus has been dead for fifty years

He builds it himself

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Lloyd finally gives out

He was almost a hundred and fifty years old

Misako was mortal

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he and Pixal go to find Nya

She's off exploring other systems

She's almost the same age as the last time they saw her

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Nya asks how the others are

 _They're already dead,_ he says

 _Relativity's a bitch,_ she says

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he and Pixal officially join Nya's expedition

He hopes it'll help him feel better

But relativity doesn't work when you're traveling at the same speed

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Nya decides to go back home

Nya is a legend

He is a footnote

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when his last friend dies

Wu contacts him from a distant planet

Wu knows how he feels

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when they meet again in the flesh

In the flesh and metal

He's never felt more different

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he asks Wu why he's still alive

Wu says nothing for a while

 _Because someone needs to remember,_ Wu finally answers

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Wu's immortality finally runs out

Wu was thirty thousand years old

He's a respectable fraction of that age

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he and Pixal decide to head back home

Relativity's a bitch

Their first and last home is gone

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when they settle upon an uninhabited icy world

It's beautiful

It's also dead

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when Pixal falls

She's speared through her torso on a spike of ice

Black fluid runs down it and slowly freezes

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he leaves the planet

There's nothing left for him there

Pixal is dead

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he attempts to call his dragon

It doesn't work

He never tries again

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he thinks of the last thing he has

He pulls the fragile false eye out of his pocket

It's almost time

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he stares out into the cosmos

It's the moment he's been waiting for

The heat death of the universe

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he feels a hand on his shoulder

And another

And another

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he turns around

There are a hundred thousand ghosts of a hundred thousand people

 _Are you ready,_ they ask

* * *

Zane looks sixteen-ish when he says yes

* * *

Zane's body looks sixteen-ish when it suddenly shorts out

It floats among the stars in the last hours of reality

He died smiling

* * *

 **(A/N):** *reads a fic about a character becoming immortal and dealing with the consequences*

*thinks about zane*

*writes this*

i honestly have no excuse at this point guys soRRY ABOUT THIS

In other news, I think this is going to be the last fic that I post on FFN. I'm going to be migrating most of my fics over to my ao3 account **(archiveofourown dot org slash users slash Woodswolf)** over the next few days - this one is already cross-posted.

I'm doing this because I really like both the reading format and the writing format on ao3 better overall - it's cleaner, you can add separate author's notes, etc. It's just much cleaner overall, and frankly, 2012 was a dark time and I'd like to distance myself from it as much as possible. :)

So... yeah. If you still want to read my fics, go follow me over there! Bye all!


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